Found
by Trebles.and.Tones
Summary: Shelby always knew that one day she would want a child after giving birth to a stillborn child who was part of a surrogacy contract. She didn't know, however, that the men who had hired her had secrets. Secrets that, when discovered, will turn Shelby's life upside down in ways that she never knew were possible.
1. Finding Out What Was Lost

**~FOUND~**

**Chapter One: Finding Out What Was Lost**

Shelby Corcoran hated the mall and very rarely ever ventured there. It was full of loud, delinquent teenagers, slow elderly couples walking around just to window shop or to get in their daily walks, and screaming toddlers with worn out parents who were too tired to even remember what they were at the mall for in the first place. The only reason that Shelby was at the mall to begin with was because she needed to find a birthday present for her niece, Launa. Normally, Shelby would have shopped online for a gift, but Launa wanted something from Build*a*Bear and by the time that Shelby had found out, it had been too late for her to order it online. Plus, Launa had made a special request about the stuffed animal.

So, now she was stuck here. At the mall. On the only day off she had this week since she was spending Sunday with her family for Launa's birthday. The other days she had been getting her things ready for the new school year.

She had only been back in Ohio for a few months and most of the places she had shopped were not frequented by noisy, teenage heathens and screaming children. She had lived in New York for the last fourteen years working in some Broadway plays and giving vocal lessons. She had loved every minute of it, but now she was thirty-four and had fulfilled her dreams in New York enough that she had been grateful when an opportunity to teach music and art, as well as coach show choir, had opened up not thirty minutes away from where she had grown up. She wanted to start a family soon, so she had jumped on it the moment she had heard about it, and had been offered the job within twenty-four hours with pay and moving expenses that she could not turn down.

The moment Shelby walked in Build*a*Bear she realized that she truly would rather be anywhere else in the world. There had to be over fifty little girls in the store running from one side of the store to the other. She wished she had known that Launa wanted one of these stuffed animals before today. The girl had called Shelby the night before and had explained to her that she had stuffed animals from the store that had been made by her mommy, daddy, nana, poppa, sister, and Aunt Judy. Shelby would have come during the middle of the day, regardless of what else she had to do, during the week had she known.

"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" Shelby mumbled to herself as she went slowly into the store to find something as quickly as possible for her niece. Shelby really was not used to being around young children. Sure, she had spent with her nieces and nephews, but fourteen years mainly on Broadway had not given her much of a chance to be around other children.

She headed straight to a wall of animals that needed to be stuffed. There were at least fifteen of the deflated creatures on the wall. There were another ten that were already stuffed and ready to go.

Unfortunately, the one Launa had specifically asked for was only in the deflated section. Hanging on the wall was the unstuffed elephant that the birthday girl had requested. Shelby sighed and grabbed the thing off the wall and then headed to the next tortuous step in the process: The Heart Station. Shelby sighed as she nearly tripped over a small child. This was going to take forever.

"Ohhh! Look at this one! It has stars all over it!" Shelby heard a young girl squeal.

Shelby shook her head, but something in the girl's voice sounded oddly…familiar. She tried to place the voice without turning to stare as she grabbed a little red heart and headed to get the elephant stuffed. Somehow, she knew Launa would know if thing didn't have heart.

"I want a purple tutu."

There was that voice again. Shelby finally turned around. She hadn't been able to place the voice and really wanted to know who it was. It was just so familiar.

Once she turned around, Shelby realized that she did not know who the girl was, but just like the voice was familiar, so was the girl. Her long hair was a dark, chestnut brown, her skin was olive toned, and her big eyes were chocolate brown and full of wonder as she stared at the wall of clothes for the stuffed penguin she had in her hand. Shelby didn't miss the fact that the girl had a pair of jeans on that Shelby herself had in her closet, a pair of jeans that cost at least two hundred dollars. On her feet were a pair UGG boots. Shelby shook her head. Who would spend so much on a growing child? The child could not be more than eleven or twelve, if that because she was on the small side. She would still grow for several more years, though. Shelby seriously doubted that the several pairs of studs that lined her ears were fake either, since the studs all looked like real black diamonds. There were three sets of holes in the child's ears. Oh well, Shelby shook her head. She had things to do that did not involve worrying about other peoples' children.

Shelby shook it off and then continued to finish the elephant in her hand. Fifteen minutes later the thing was stuffed, dressed in clothes, and paid for. Finally. Shelby was ready to get out of the store.

"Daddy! Look at this outfit!" The girl Shelby was still wondering about said to the side of the store.

Shelby had been headed out of the store, but stopped completely when she noticed who the girl was standing beside. Who the girl had just called Daddy.

And Shelby realized why the child had look so familiar.

Because, Shelby knew right then that the child was hers, and someone had a hell of a lot of explaining to do since the only child she had ever carried had been stillborn and the rest of her eggs were supposed to be at a fertility clinic waiting for her to decide when the time was right and she wanted a child. She had been thinking about it a lot lately and knew that she wanted to have a child within the next two years.

But, something was not right. Because the man in front of her was Hiram Berry and he was talking to a young girl who looked and sounded exactly like Shelby and favored her niece Launa quite a bit. Shelby and Launa were the only two girls in the family with such dark hair and olive skin. Most people often thought that Launa was Shelby's child since everyone else in the family was blonde and blue eyed. Shelby's grandmother had had very similar features as well.

Shelby, holding tightly onto her bags, quickly left the store so that the man did not see her.

Hiram and Leroy Berry had a lot of explaining to do. Shelby got out her phone and dialed her sister's number.

Her sister and brother-in-law were both lawyers, and they had some things to figure out, and quickly. Because if that child was hers, the Berry men were going to have a lot of explaining to do.

**~FOUND~**

Shelby walked into her home-a home she just recently moved into that was much too big for her, but she had fallen in love with the already furnished dance room in the basement- and threw down her keys and purse. She immediately went into the kitchen and sat at the bar so that she could call her sister, Gabriella. Ella was a lawyer, as was her brother-in-law, Russell, who was married to her sister Judy. She wanted Ella right now though.

She listened as the phone rang once, twice, three times. Shelby signed. Ella was probably getting things ready for Launa's birthday party. On the seventh ring, Shelby hung up and dialed Russell's number. She knew that Judy was in Columbus with Frannie doing some shopping for the new school year and Quinn was at her friend's house for the day because Judy had asked her if she wanted to go into Columbus with them.

Two rings and Russell picked up. Before he could get a word in, "Russell, they did something! I don't know how but they have my baby! A baby I didn't even know I had!" Shelby sobbed into the phone. On the other end, Russell was speechless for several moments and was just about to say something when Shelby started talking again.

"Russell, they stole them. I just know it! My eggs! They stole them! I had seven viable eggs left. Only seven. I have to call the fertility clinic. I have to...I know that they…They were supposed to keep them for me!" Tears blurred her vision so much that she could not see across her kitchen.

"Shelby, stop. Come over to the house so that we can discuss this. So that you can explain to me exactly what is going on."

"I…I will be over as soon as I find all of the paperwork." Shelby said, and then hung up. She and her family did not often talk about the time she had played surrogate when she was barely nineteen years old. She had wanted to get out of Ohio and to get to New York. Her parents had seemed so against the idea that she had figured out how to pay for it herself. She had been a surrogate for Hiram and Leroy Berry, two gay men that lived an hour away from where Shelby grew up.

But, there had been many complications. Shelby had fallen in love with the baby she carried, a baby that was half hers, though that, itself, had not been the worst of the complications. They had harvested her eggs, obtaining eleven viable eggs. They had inseminated three and implanted them into Shelby's uterus.

Two of the eggs had not implanted, though the third had. Shelby found out that she was pregnant soon after, and the beginning of the pregnancy had been a breeze. She had not suffered morning sickness, had been delighted when, at nineteen weeks, she had finally discovered that she was carrying a baby girl. She had fallen in love with the baby and did not know what she was going to do when it came time to hand the baby over.

But then, something happened. At twenty-eight weeks, Shelby started bleeding and was rushed to the ER. Eighteen hours later, ten of them hard labor, she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl, a baby that, for one reason or another, had just simply stopped breathing in utero. They couldn't get the bleeding to stop and Shelby remembered little else until she woke up a day later. Upon further inspection, they had discovered that Shelby's ovaries had turned black, a genetic condition that her sister, Judy, had also gone through after having her oldest child, Frannie, and were no longer viable, though her uterus was. She could carry children but the seven eggs she had left were her only chance of ever being able to have a child of her own. The fertility clinic was supposed to keep the eggs until Shelby was ready for them.

Shelby angrily wiped away her tears. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe that little girl was not hers. Maybe her eggs were still safe and sound at the fertility clinic.

She went into her office and grabbed her papers, all papers having to deal with the surrogacy, her eggs, the fertility clinic, and the Berry's. She had kept them, always, never knowing if they would be needed for one thing or another. Shelby grabbed her keys and walked out the door. She knew that Russell would know exactly what to do.

**~FOUND~**

"Shelby, I can't do anything until Monday, but I can get a court order to find out what happened to your eggs." Russell said, flipping through the papers in front of him. It was clear as day that that the seven eggs that were left were Shelby's. In the papers, the surrogacy agreement had only stated that the initial three inseminated eggs were part of the surrogacy. The other eggs were Shelby's, and only Shelby's to do with what she wished. While it was mostly unheard of, the eggs were not inseminated, and were waiting on Shelby. The shelf life for the eggs was not as long as it would be if they were inseminated, though they would still last quite some time if they were kept in the proper conditions. Shelby and the doctor who had taken her eggs had agreed that they were under the perfect conditions and would last until Shelby was ready to have a child, or the fertility clinic would get in touch with Shelby and let her know that something had to be done sooner than expected if she wanted a child of her own.

Shelby sighed and looked at the table in front of her as she heard the front door open. Quinn walked in, her smile brightening a bit more when she saw her aunt.

"I will work on the paperwork for court tonight so that everything will be ready for Monday." Russell whispered. Shelby nodded as she forced a smile onto her face as she suddenly got a lapful of her niece, Quinn.

"What are you doing here, Aunt Shelby?" Quinn asked. She was still getting used to the fact that her favorite aunt was finally within visiting distance. She lived only about twenty minutes away now.

"I came over to talk to your father. What have you been up too?" Shelby asked her niece.

"I was at my friend, Santana's house. We were talking about school. You know it starts in like two weeks. We want to have a sleepover before school starts too. I have to talk to mom though. Dad said he couldn't say yes or no without talking to mom. Right now her cousin is in, so I left earlier than I was supposed too. Her cousin is sorta snobby. She thinks that she is better than everyone here because she lives in Beverly Hills with her parents."

Shelby smiled and hugged her niece tightly, and listened to her go on talking about the sleepover that she wanted to have with her friend. But, Shelby was only half listening. Her other thoughts were on the child she had seen at the mall. Would she have had the same reaction if it had been her stillborn baby? The baby that was supposed to have gone to the Berry men?

Sure, she didn't know whether the little girl she had seen was truly hers, but Shelby did not believe in coincidences. That child had looked just like her. That child had looked exactly like Launa, only a few years older.

Yes, this situation was different. If that child was hers, then they had to get the eggs somewhere. There had been seven of her eggs left. What was left now? And, why had she not been contacted if the Berry men had planned on using them again?

Shelby had a lot to think about, that was for sure.

~**FOUND**~

Tuesday afternoon, Russell Fabray was shocked at what he had discovered. He had no idea how he was going to break this news to his sister-in-law. He knew that he was going to have to call in Gabriella and ask her to help him with this situation. She was another sister-in-law, and also a lawyer as well. Yes, he thought, looking down at the papers that had been confiscated from the fertility clinic and from Leroy and Hiram Berry's home in California that morning, he needed Ella's help with this. There was no way that he could handle this situation.

Thirty minutes later, he was sitting in his sister-in-law's office, watching as she looked over the papers that he had handed her the moment that he had walked into the office and sat down.

She looked over at him and just stared for a moment.

"You have got to be kidding me, Russell! What the hell is going on? Did you know? Surely you didn't know about this?" She asked him, her toned edged with anger.

"Of course I didn't know, Gabriella! I never would have kept that from Shelby!" He nearly shouted, outraged that she would even think for a second that he had known about everything that was happening to their family.

Gabriella sat back and sighed.

"I know, Russell. It's just... this is practically a scandal. In a town as small as Lima, this will not be kept secret for long.

Russell shook his head. This was not going to end well, nor was it going to be easy on anyone involved.

**~FOUND~**

Shelby sat in front of her sister, her face blank. She had not slept well since the day at the mall. It was Thursday afternoon and she had been shocked when Gabriella, not Russell, had called her to tell her that she needed to see her that afternoon as soon as possible.

"Shelby, this is not going to be an easy battle to figure out, but I want you to know that I will do everything that I can to help you." Gabriella told her little sister.

Gabriella could tell that Shelby had not slept. She had been able to tell at Launa's birthday party, though she had not known what was going on then, and neither Shelby nor Russell had mentioned anything until Monday, when Russell had handed the case over to her. It was Thursday now.

"What have you found out?" Shelby was not wasting any time. She wanted to know what was going on.

Gabriella sighed. This was going to be much harder than she had anticipated. Especially now that she knew most of the facts.

"Tell. Me." Shelby hissed. She didn't often snap at Gabriella. Ella was four years older than her, and had always been the one to kick her scrawny ass when they were kids if Shelby picked a fight with her. Really though, they had gotten along really well and Shelby had looked up to Ella.

"Russell did most of the digging. He got records from the fertility clinic. They were subpoenaed early this Monday morning. Soon after, a search warrant was issued on their premises because their records were incomplete. There was also a search warrant on Dr. Warren's financial, phone, email, and tax records…"

"My eggs?" Shelby asked, almost in a whisper.

This was something that Gabriella did not want to tell her sister. But, the fact remained that this was not even going to be the hardest thing to tell her in the grand scheme of things.

"They were sold."

A tear slid down Shelby's face.

"What else? They were mine, Ella!" Shelby cried, staring out the window as she gripped tightly to the arms of the chair that she was sitting in.

"Yes. They were yours and it was illegal for Dr. Warren to sell them. He sold them to Leroy and Hiram Berry not long after you lost the baby and moved to New York. They were, more or less, black market eggs."

"Then what happened?"

"We were then able to get a subpoena for the Berrys' records. They paid Dr. Warren two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for your eggs. There were six viable eggs. Hiram's half-sister was infertile, but able to carry a child. Two eggs, using Maribel's husband's sperm, were implanted and one took. Hiram and Leroy had agreed that if Maribel, the sister, successfully had a child, that she would then carry a child for them. It was successful and she had a daughter she named Santana. A year later she carried a child for them. Two more eggs were implanted then. Dr. Warren did all of this. Again, one egg took; using Hiram's sperm, your egg, and Maribel's body, another little girl was born. Her name is Rachel and she is currently twelve years old…"

"I have two daughters?" Shelby began crying harder. She had two daughters who did not know her? Two daughters who were supposed to be hers, and only hers? Santana. That name sounded so familiar.

"Hiram, Leroy, and Dr. Warren were arrested this morning, Shelby. The child, for now, is with CPS. I had to talk to you before we could proceed any farther."

Shelby just shook her head in disbelief.

"Shelby, there is another child as well." Gabriella said gently.

Shelby's head snapped up. Three?

"I want them. They are my children. I want them." Shelby said through her tears.

"Shelby, this is where the hard part comes in…"

"The hard part? What the hell do you mean the 'hard part'? I have missed years of my children's lives because three men stole from me! I want my children!"

Gabriella knew that she had to tread lightly now. This was not going to be an easy thing to explain or even discuss. It was going to change everything.

"The child that is in Hiram and Leroy's custody, Rachel, will be easy to obtain. They will be going to jail and they, being lawyers, knew that what they were doing was illegal. You will easily get custody of her. It will be harder to get custody of Santana, if you even wanted to in the end. I know the girl and the family. Her father is a doctor, her mother a housewife. She is happy and taken care of. Her parents did nothing wrong. They did not know that the eggs had been stolen, just that, at the time, they could not afford the infertility treatments because he was in school and she was working a minimum wage job to get them by. We have their records too, and they thought that they were helping Maribel's brother in the long run. He is several years older than Maribel."

Shelby chose to ignore that fact at the moment. She wanted to be mad at everyone involved right now. She needed to be mad. She deserved to be mad. Shelby suddenly looked up.

"You said that there was another child. Who? Who had that child?"

Gabriella swallowed. She had tried to hold off on this part.

Shelby noticed this, and her eyes grew round.

"Who is it, Ella? Who is it?"

"Shelby this is going to be hard for you to understand, but you have to know that they didn't have a clue. You know they never would have done it if they had known, and they would have told you."

Fear sank into the pit of Shelby's stomach.

"Ella, tell me." Tears were clouding Shelby's sight. Her sister was now a mere blur.

"The child is Quinn, Shelby. The other two eggs were given to Judy and Russell, though they did not know that they were yours. They didn't know that Hiram and Leroy were the ones who had hired you as a surrogate. Remember, we never met them. You refused to let any of us meet them. Leroy had worked with Russell at the time and knew they wanted another child and he offered him the two eggs. It was, according to Leroy, to get back at you for losing the baby the year before."

This was some cruel joke. She wanted all three of her children. Her daughters. Except, she knew that she could never try to get Quinn. It wasn't fair. She knew how hard it had been on Judy when she had been told that she would never be able to have another child of her own, as she suffered from the same genetic issues with her ovaries as Shelby did, and had discovered it after giving birth to Francine.

Then there was the other girl. Santana. Shelby realized that Santana was the girl Quinn had been talking about the week before. The girl she spent so much time with. They were best friends. She knew that she could not do that to another childless mother.

Then she realized that Santana's cousin was her other daughter. The one Quinn had said was snobby and had grown up in Beverly Hills.

Shelby just shook her head and burst into gut wrenching sobs. The sobs were so loud that several of Gabriella's colleagues quickly came to the door to see if she needed help, only to be waved off until one of them finally shut the door to give the two sisters privacy as Ella walked around the desk and held her little sister in her arms as she sobbed for all that she had lost.


	2. The Lost One

**AN: Hey all! Here is the second chapter:) I am not sure when the third chapter will be updated, but I do know exactly where this story is going. Also, I have a twitter, (search treblesandtones) and feel free to ask me any questions there if you want:) I would love to hear what you think about this chapter and the story as a whole so far. **

**Chapter Two: The Lost One**

Shelby was in tears as she read the file in her lap. She and Ella were in the car, heading to the other side of Lima where her daughter now was. The more she read, the more she felt the tears flow. But it was not because she was sad. She was pissed. Unbelievably pissed.

"I am going to kill them. Both! With my bare hands!" Shelby hissed venomously.

"Shelby. That is not going to solve anything and you know it. You are not going to be able to talk negatively about them in front of your daughter. They have raised her for years and she does not know anything about them other than they were her fathers."

"Did you see what they named her? And _why_ they named her that? They told the DA exactly why they named her what they did! To take one more thing away from me! They knew that I wanted to name my daughter Rachel Barbra. They knew it. I had told them that. It says right here that they named her that as another way to get back at me! They stole my eggs and my name because they were angry with me for losing the baby! They wanted nothing to do with the baby once I had her though. They didn't even want to hold her or bury her! I had too!" Shelby yelled at her sister. Ella remembered. Vividly. That had nearly broken Shelby, not that she hadn't already been broken by everything else that was going on during the pregnancy as well.

Ella could take no more. She pulled the car over and parked, then stared at her little sister.

"What are you doing?" Shelby snapped. They did not have time for this and Ella knew it.

"I am going to sit here and let you scream and yell and cry. I am going to let you do whatever you need to do." Ella stated.

"What the hell are you talking about? Drive!" Shelby yelled again.

"No. I am not moving from this spot until you get shit figured out. Do you really want to meet your daughter that way? Berating her fathers? A crying, sobbing mess? Really, Shelby? Grow the hell up! Your daughter is twelve. Not you!"

"Like you understand! You have your daughter! You have Launa! Her father never even sees her, so you have her all the time! I have three daughters! One of them is my own niece. They were really cruel with that one, though I must say that that was probably partially my fault since I would not tell anyone who I was being a surrogate for. But really? My own sister? Quinn is my daughter and I am well aware that I could never take her from Judy and Russell even if I wanted too! And the other girl, Santana. She is half Hispanic. Apparently favors me a bit. She is happy! How do I even know that Rachel will be better with me?"

"Shelby, so help me, I am going to smack the shit out of you if you do not chill out. Right now, nothing else matters except Rachel. She is the one who is coming to live with you. We talked about this, Shelby. Rachel is the only one you will ever be able to get custody of under the circumstances."

"Do you really think that I would take Quinn away from my own sister? Really? Do you think that little of me?"

"Shelby, listen to me. I know that you would never take Quinn away from Judy and Russell, even if a judge told you that you could. I need you to realize, though, that you cannot take Santana away either. Yes, she is Hiram's sister's child, but you cannot hold that against them."

"I wouldn't. I thought that you knew me better than that. I just…Ella, it is only fair that I get to spend time with them…isn't is? Don't I have the right to at least get to see Santana every once in a while? Judy would never take Quinn away from me, but will I ever get to know Santana? I am still her biological mother."

"And I, not you, will talk to Maribel and Carlos Lopez about that. I will try to get them to agree to a weekend a month without having to go to court. From what I have heard, they are devastated about what Hiram has done to them. And you. Judy and Russell are no better. Russell told me this morning that Judy won't come out of her room. She is so afraid that you are going to be angry with her. Shelby, I realize that you have been affected by this quite a lot. This is your entire life being turned upside down. You need to realize that you are not the only one though. This is affecting more than just you. It is affecting our entire family as a whole. It is also affecting Judy, Russell, Quinn, and Frannie. It is affecting Carlos, Maribel, and Santana. But the one affected the most? That is going to be Rachel. She is the one being virtually ripped from the life she knew. You need to understand all of this.

Shelby looked out the window. She absolutely hated when her sister was completely right during an argument. She always had.

"I get it, Ella. It's just hard. There is so much happening here, all at once."

Ella placed a hand on Shelby's leg.

"I know, Shelby. But we will help you. You have a huge family that is going to be around for this."

"If Judy will ever even speak to me again."

"Shelby, that is not true and you know it. She is your sister."

"And you were all my sisters and parents when I was nineteen, but didn't talk to me for months. In fact, you didn't talk to me until right after I lost the baby. Collins was the only would I could get to talk to me at all and that was because she was seven!" Shelby snapped.

Ella sighed. Shelby was right. They had all been so hurt that Shelby had kept them out of her decisions surrounding the surrogacy and the fact that she only wanted to run off to New York after she had the infant. Shelby had been just as distant from them as well, though she didn't mention that to Shelby. Even she knew better than that. They were all her older sisters, yet she had not talked to any of them.

"We are all older now. Wiser. You aren't hiding things from us anymore. We were hurt."

"I am well aware. You all let me know how hurt you were when you finally started talking to me again." Shelby said quietly. She knew that she was partly to blame for it, but it hurt nonetheless.

"We all told you that we were sorry, Shell. This is different all together and you know it. You are going to need support, at least emotionally."

"I get it, Ella. Can we please go now? We are going to be late." Shelby said, though she knew that she had a lot more to think about.

Ella merely nodded. She knew that this was going to take time. Shelby was too raw at the moment. She was hurt and had plenty of reasons to be so. And despite what she said, she felt that Shelby had the most reason to feel the way she had. Maribel, she understood. But, she had to admit that she was slightly angry with Judy and Russell. They should have looked further into Hiram and Leroy before ever accepting a 'gift' like the one they had taken. It had not been a small thing to accept, but apparently the two of them had not thought about it for a second before accepting it. Ella knew, though, that she would not be able to mention that to Shelby. It wasn't fair to her, and honestly, Shelby needed to not be angry with any of the parents to her two other daughters, at least not at the moment.

**~Found~**

The twelve year old girl stared at the social worker in front of her and glared. This was so stupid! Could the woman in front of her truly be this dumb? Why was she being held here? Her Dads were not criminals! She couldn't believe that someone was stupid enough to arrest them earlier in the day!

"Do you want to talk about anything?" the woman asked her. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She refused to cry even though she was upset. How could she not be upset? Her entire world was turning upside down. The only parents she had ever known had been arrested in front of her.

But, girls like her did not cry. Ever. She had learned that early on. Crying got you nowhere. If you wanted something, then you had to make it happen yourself, but crying was for the weak.

"I want to see my dads."

"I am afraid I can't do that. We have come across a problem with the two men you thought were your parents." the social worker told her gently.

"Look Ms…." She looked at the woman questioningly.

"My name is Eileen Peterson."

"Well, look Eileen Peterson. My dads were and are my dads. Why will you not let me see them? You came to the house and brought me to a police station! I haven't even done anything wrong! There is some kind of mistake because there is no way that they would have kidnapped me!"

"Nothing you did was wrong. However, what Hiram and Leroy Berry did was very wrong. You did not belong to them, ever, really. It is hard to understand, but before you were born, your dads stole your real mom's eggs," Eileen sighed. How did you explain this to a twelve year old, when she probably did not know about the birds and the bees to begin with? "I know that this is hard to understand..."

"You are lying!" the girl said, standing up. It didn't do much. She was short, even for twelve, and, if Eileen Peterson was honest with herself, the girl was adorable when she was mad. She felt horrible about having to tell the child the things she was telling her.

But the sad truth was, that Eileen knew that this was not going to be easy by a long shot. She dealt with abused, unwanted, and hungry children all the time. This was completely different. This child did not look or act like she had been abused. She did not act like she was hungry. She was angry, but did not act like she was mad at the world. She was angry at the situation she was currently in. She was upset that what she had once known was no longer true. If anything, the child had been overindulged, spoiled, given everything she ever wanted by two men who probably felt they needed to make up for things they'd done in their pasts.

Eileen had no idea how she had been the one called in for this case, but despite the circumstances, it was good to be called in on a case where the child wasn't vacant from abuse. Most of the cases she handled were exactly that.

"Can you tell me where you lived with your fathers?"

"Why should I do that?" the girl spat at her.

"Don't you want some of your things?" Eileen asked her.

She rolled her eyes. Yes. There were things that she wanted. They had been on a mini vacation to see her aunt when her dads had been arrested. They did that a lot, especially this time of year. It was going to be one of the last ones that they came to Ohio right before the beginning of the school year because she was in cheerleading now, despite being only twelve. She was ahead in school because she had skipped fifth grade and had started kindergarten a year early because she could already read and write and do math thanks to her many tutors. So, she was in ninth now. She had wanted to skip again because the work was still boring, but her fathers had not wanted her too. They had said that it would draw too much attention to her and they didn't want that. She'd be thirteen soon, though, so it wasn't like she was that far behind in age. The other ninth graders were fourteen, though some would turn fifteen during the school year.

Though, had they let her, she could have been in cheerleading last year. She was already in dance and she loved it. Cheerleading would be just as fun, she could tell. She was a great flyer because she was so small, and she could do all sorts of tricks in the air when she was tossed up.

"We live in Beverly Hills, California. We come to Ohio to see my aunt several times a year."

Eileen wrote that down quickly.

"Where does your aunt live?"

"Here in Lima. Her name is Maribel Lopez. She is my dad's half sister. She has a daughter a couple years older than me. Santana. San is fourteen."

"We will work on getting you some of your things as soon as I can get a hold of someone in California." Eileen said. She would ask the aunt about that. The woman probably knew who could be trusted with such a task.

"What's the point? I have things at my aunt's house and I will be going back to California soon anyways. Daddy and Dad will get me back. They are lawyers."

"Honey…" Eileen started. How did you tell a child that obviously didn't understand, that she was never going back to California and that she would never live with the men she thought were her fathers again? That those men would never get custody of her again and probably would be in jail for a very long time?

It wasn't quite as easy as Eileen had thought that it would be.

"What? I am not stupid! There is no way that I was really kidnapped! Or that my eggs were or whatever! My Aunt Maribel carried me! They have told me the story a million times! They have baby pictures of me!" she yelled at Eileen.

"Listen, honey, I know that this is hard to understand. I get it. But, I think that it is better to tell you what is truly going on, kind of like a band aid that needs to just be ripped off. It is going to sting for a bit, but I promise that it will not always be so."

"What do you know? You are sitting here telling me that my dads stole me! That they kidnapped me from my real family! What the hell do you want me to say?"

"I do understand that this is hard. But, let me ask you this, have you ever wondered who your mother was? It's obvious that you knew your aunt was not your real mother, have you ever wondered who was? You are a smart girl, Rachel, have you ever wanted to know about your mother?"

She stopped.

Yes, she had always wanted to know who her mother was. She had always wanted to know why the woman had ended up giving her to her dads. Even if her Aunt Maribel had carried her for nine months, she had always known that she wasn't even biologically her mother. They looked nothing alike. She did love her dads…they were just so…clueless sometimes. They were also overprotective, yet still let her make most of her own choices about everything. She had always felt like she was missing something, but had always shrugged it off. What did she know? She was only eleven.

"I want to see my dad. Hiram." He would tell her the truth. He was always honest with her.

"I can't allow that. I am sorry. He has already been officially arrested."

She stared at the woman with fire in her eyes. This was so stupid! This was ridiculous!

Could it have only been this morning that she was perfectly normal? That she had been eating breakfast with her aunt and uncle and her dads while her cousin was still asleep?

She stared at Eileen.

"It can't be true…" she whispered, letting all of the information sink into her thoughts.

Eileen looked at her sadly. It was so much for a young child to take in.

"Honey, we have found your mother. She is very anxious for you to come home." Eileen said.

"Would you like something to eat or drink?" Eileen asked, looking at the time.

"Yes. Nothing chicken though. I detest the stuff."

Eileen nodded and then walked out of the small room. She went to grab the file that she had been handed by the police earlier that morning about the little girl. It had a picture of Rachel's mother in it.

Eileen stared at it for a moment and then went back to the room and sat back in her seat across the table from Rachel.

"Listen, I know that you are having a hard time, but this is very real. This is what is happening to you in this moment. I understand that you do not understand. But, in a few minutes, your real mother is going to walk in here and you are going to live with her. I am going to do anything that I can to help you in this new adjustment. Would you like to see a picture of her?"

She rolled her eyes at Eileen and then huffed.

"I am hungry. I want a latte with two shots of espresso and a caesar salad with grilled flank steak on the side." Rachel finally said, well aware the woman would probably bring her something that she would not eat if she didn't tell her exactly what she wanted.

Eileen was about to say something when someone knocked on the door, so she had to get up and answer the door instead of responding to Rachel.

The girl was watching Eileen's every move as she poked her head out the door and talked to whomever it was for several moments and then opened the door wider.

A woman stepped in. She had dark brown hair and light green eyes. She was wearing a suit and heels and a purple button up shirt.

Was this her mother? Was this the woman she had been so curious about for so long?

She stood up and stared at her.

"Rachel…" Shelby whispered when she saw her daughter for the first real time.

One serene moment passed between mother and daughter.

One serene moment right before the girl put her hands on her hips and stuck her chin out, yelling, "Do not call me Rachel! Call me Elle!"


	3. Confused Types of Feelings

**AN: In this chapter, you may start getting confused about all of the characters, ages, and where people fall. If everyone wishes, I can make a family tree and either post it on here somehow, or post it on my twitter (search treblesandtones). I could also post it on my photobucket. I just need to know where people would want to look at it. On here, it will be typed, on Twitter or photobucket, I will probably put pictures of my characters as well if there is interest. Thanks for all of the amazing reviews that I have gotten:)**

**Confused Types of Feelings**

Friday morning, Shelby walked into the courthouse with an entirely different sense of where she was in her life than she had just a mere two weeks before. Her entire life was changing, all because of a twelve year old child. Her child. Rachel was changing Shelby. It still amazed Shelby that one afternoon at the mall could change her life so drastically. There was so much that she had to do to get ready for Rachel to move into her home permanently, and honestly, she wasn't quite sure how she was going to get it all done by Sunday afternoon.

She sighed as she walked around looking for the room she needed. Her meeting with Rachel the day before had not quite gone as she had planned. Rachel hated her and made it obvious. Or, at least Shelby felt like she did. Not that she felt that Rachel was going to embrace her with open arms. She had known that wasn't going to happen and probably would not happen anytime soon. Her world was being torn apart. No one could expect anything different from her, least of all Shelby. That was why she, Ella, and Eileen had decided that it would be best for Rachel to stay with her aunt and uncle until Sunday afternoon. It would give Rachel time to adjust to the idea that she was moving in with her mother, plus Shelby was going to be busy all day Friday in court, Saturday would be spent cleaning out all of her things from the second biggest room in her house for Rachel, so really, it would be best all around. Ella was also going to help with Shelby Saturday, thankfully. She wasn't going to decorate the room. That would be Rachel's decision.

Ella had met Rachel the day before when Shelby had asked Eileen to go out and get her so that she could meet Rachel. She would be the only relative that Rachel met until Rachel wanted to meet others. Shelby did not want to bombard Rachel with other family members right now. Family that really wasn't even talking to Shelby, despite what Ella had said the day before. Besides Ella, not one of them had called her to ask her if she was okay or to ask about Rachel except for Collins. She and Collins had always been close though, despite the fact that Shelby was fourteen years older than her baby sister. Shelby had been the baby until Collins had been born, and had been jealous for a while. But it hadn't taken long before she realized that she and Collins would get along really well. It had helped her immensely after she had lost the only child she had ever carried.

Shelby shook her head to clear it as she finally saw Ella. She didn't want to think about the rest of her family. She didn't want to think about how reminiscent this situation felt of the way they treated her when they found out about the surrogacy so many years before.

"Shelby, I've been looking for you. The Berrys are here as well. Things have…changed. Drastically.

Shelby looked up, shocked.

"What do you mean?" Shelby asked fearfully.

"No, not in a bad way. The Berrys, while upset over the fact that they are inevitably going to jail and losing their daughter, signed over most of their assets to Rachel. The DA offered them a deal…"

"A deal? I don't want them to have a deal!"

"Shelby, listen! The DA offered them a deal. They signed over most of their assets, and they will spend ten to fifteen years in jail. Much less than the thirty they were facing for all of the crimes they committed. The doctor, well that is another thing all together. He has already had his license revoked and is facing charges. You are not his only victim. The DA's office is going through his documents now."

"What did Hiram and Leroy do with their assets?" Shelby asked. She would rather they be in jail for the rest of their lives.

"They signed them over to you and Rachel. Rachel already has a trust fund, though it is now in your name until you deem her old enough to handle the responsibility of having so much money at her disposal. Their houses, two I believe, will be yours and Rachel's to do with what you wish. There is one home that was signed over directly to Rachel. They said that it was her favorite, and did not want to chance anyone else having it, least it be sold. They kept one house for themselves. They will need it when they are released, whether that is in ten, fifteen, or twenty years. I think they will be released earlier, honestly. It is being cared for by a caretaker. Maribel Lopez was given part of their assets to make sure that the man is paid and can take care of anything else that arises while they are away. Anyways, they have their own account set up for when they are in prison and after they are released, everything else will go to Rachel or will be signed over to you, or was already given to Maribel Lopez for her family. "

Shelby looked at Ella.

"I do not want their money. I can take care of my child perfectly fine with the money I have. I am in no way broke." Shelby snapped.

Ella sighed. Shelby was so pigheaded at times. She was well aware of the fact that her little sister had quite a bit of money. Years in New York, on Broadway and giving vocal lessons, had given her quite a little nest egg. Everything she owned was paid for, something Ella could only dream about at the moment.

"Shelby, this is not only for you. This is for Rachel as well."

"How much are their assets worth?" Shelby asked, not really wanting to go into it, but knowing that she needed to.

"Over two hundred million. They have done well for themselves, and Leroy came from money. He was a trust fund baby just as Rachel is. That is not including Rachel's trust fund, or her bank account."

Shelby's eyebrows rose.

"You have got to be kidding me. She is twelve! Why does she need a bank account? How much is in this bank account?"

Ella knew that Shelby was going to hit the roof when she told her.

"Apparently, Rachel is very good at saving her money. I have the paperwork from the account. Every month, five thousand dollars are placed in the account. This has been so since Rachel was born. When Rachel was born, they put a hundred thousand dollars in the account. After that, an automatic five thousand went into the account every month. They eventually gave Rachel a debit card to the account, though I am not sure how old she was, so that she could buy what she wanted, when she wanted. It has over seven hundred thousand dollars in it now. Five thousand a month will continue to be put in the account until Rachel turns twenty-six, which is when they were originally going to give her the trust fund. Her trust fund alone has over fifty million in it right now, simply sitting and gaining interest."

Shelby stared at her sister.

"You have got to be kidding me? My child has a debit card with hundreds of thousands of dollars? What in the hell were they thinking?"

"Shelby, you have to remember that they were living in Beverly Hills. It is different there. Rachel is not from Lima, and it will probably take her a while to adjust. It has taken you time to adjust to moving back here from New York, and you are an adult. An adult who grew up here. But you are famous. Especially in New York, and you have money and an apartment you tell everyone you sold before you moved back here, but that we both know you didn't. You are still adjusting. It is going to take Rachel even longer to adjust because she is twelve."

"I know that it is going to take time for her to adjust." Shelby said. Her mind was still trying to wrap around the fact that her daughter had just as much money as she did. Shelby didn't even think about the two hundred million that was also coming her way. That would go into an account for Rachel, for later. And for her other two daughters. The Berry men owed those two girls quite a bit as well. Most of it, though, was Rachel's.

"Where are the houses?"

"The one they kept is in Beverly Hills. Rachel's things are still there, but that is something that we need to discuss with them and the Lopezs when we finish signing all of the paperwork. The one they signed over to Rachel is in Orlando, Florida. One of the ones they signed over to you is in the Hamptons, the other is in London."

Shelby's head was spinning with all of this new information. She looked over at her sister for a moment.

"How did you know that I hadn't sold my apartment in New York?" her eyes narrowed a bit. She silently wondered if Ella had looked into it.

Ella rolled her eyes.

"Because I know you, Shelby. You love New York. You were never going to sale that apartment. It's your escape."

Shelby nodded. She needed this to all be over. She needed this to be over and to have her daughter at home. At least when Rachel was at home, they would be able to start healing.

"Let's go. I want to get this over with." Shelby whispered.

"Okay. Let's go. Everyone is right down the hall. I just wanted to prepare you for what was going on."

"Thank you." Shelby said as they walked down the hall. She was going to face the Berry men for the first time. She needed to be prepared.

**~Found~Found~Found~Found~Found~**

Judy Fabray had not gotten out of her bed in several days unless absolutely necessary. Her entire world was falling apart, she just knew it. She had kept the girls in the house, not allowing them to go anywhere. It was her right. They were her children. She had the perfect family. The perfect house. They lived on the perfect side of town. She prided herself on just how perfect her little family was. But it was all crashing down around her and she could literally see each piece falling.

She had cried more in the last few days than she had in years. She was so angry with her younger sister. How could Shelby be so selfish? Shelby was taking a child away from the only parents she had ever known! What if Shelby decided that she wanted Quinn as well? The courts had easily given Shelby custody of one of her daughters already. It had taken the judge less than two days to decide that Shelby was a capable parent, and the rightful guardian to the twelve year old child of Hiram and Leroy Berry. Russell had said that it wouldn't happen, that Ella had told him that Shelby would never try to get Quinn from them. That she wanted to simply keep being 'Aunt Shelby'. Shelby had thought that the Berrys were good enough once upon a time, though, so why was this any different? Why was it different now that she discovered that they did have a child with Shelby's genes?

Judy wasn't so sure about anything anymore though. She and Shelby had often been at odds over the years. They were close in age, and Shelby had been the baby for fourteen years until Collins had come along, a nice surprise for their entire family. Honestly, though, their parents had still treated Shelby like the baby of the family even after Collins. Yes, the last several years had been great between Judy and Shelby because Shelby had been in New York making it big, and Judy had been at home, caring for her family and home. There had been the time though, when Shelby had been nineteen and carrying a child for two men…Judy felt so stupid. How had neither she nor Russell seen through this? How had they not known that Hiram and Leroy Berry giving them two eggs from their surrogate was suspicious? How had they not realized that they were the ones that Shelby had carried a child for?

Part of her wanted to blame Shelby for this as well. When Shelby had told everyone what she was pregnant, carrying a baby for two men, they had all been furious with her because she was so young and couldn't possibly understand the consequences. She was nineteen, naive. Their oldest sister Meri had told Shelby that she was being selfish and only thinking of herself. Ella, the next oldest, had begged her not to give the child up, and Judy had eventually just felt hurt and thought that Shelby was being ignorant to think that it wouldn't hurt her to have a child and then give it up. Shelby knew nothing.

Judy had Frannie at the time, and had found out that she would never have another child who was biologically hers immediately after giving birth. It hadn't truly sunk in at the time, but it hadn't taken long before it did.

Their parents, Harrison and Anna Corcoran, had talked to Shelby as well. They had tried to talk her out of giving the baby up as well. This had angered Shelby. She had made these decisions herself because their parents had refused to help her get to New York so that she could study theater. She had figured it out herself. As soon as she had the baby and was well enough, she was going to New York with the money.

_"Shelby, you don't understand how this will affect you later! How will you feel, knowing that you have a child out there you are not allowed to see? Tell me Shelby?" Anna asked her daughter. _

_"I am doing what I need to in order to make my dreams come true! The fertility doctor saved the rest of my eggs. They are unfertilized. Just in case this pregnancy doesn't take, so that I won't have to go through him taking any more eggs. It has though. I am already three months along…"_

_"How can you be so naïve, Shelby!" Judy asked her sister, Frannie sitting on her lap chewing on her fingers. She was six months old. _

_"It is my body. I am over eighteen. I can do what I want, whether any of you agree with it or not."_

_Shelby walked out of the house then._

It would be the last time that Judy saw Shelby until after she gave birth, but Judy would never forget what happened after Shelby left that day.

_"We don't have the right to tell her what to do with her life. No one will help her go to New York. She has been talking about going to New York since she was seven. Mom, Dad, you helped me go to school and you help now that I am in law school. You helped Russell and Judy get their first house. You helped Meri go to college. You point blank refused to help Shelby go to New York because you think it is too dangerous. You know Shelby. All of you know Shelby. She isn't being selfish. She is doing what she needs to. She is doing what she needs to succeed. You all know how great Shelby is on the stage. She will achieve her dreams while we will never get to leave here. I am just as much to blame as all of you because I do not want her to give up the baby that she is carrying, but I can tell you all right now, we are being selfish. Not Shelby. She is giving parents a child that they cannot have on their own. And it is selfish for us to judge Shelby. She is our sister. Your daughter."_

_'This is different, Gabriella. She is nineteen. She is too young to have a child and then give it away. She is too young to go to New York, alone." Harrison told his daughter. _

_"You better learn to accept it, or we are going to lose her." Ella snapped, leaving the house the same way that Shelby had. _

Judy remembered it like it was yesterday. Then, several months later, their mother had called them all to tell them that Shelby had lost the baby. Shelby had taken it hard. Harder than anyone besides Ella had thought she would once they heard. Two weeks later, Shelby was gone to New York, and they didn't see or hear from her for nearly a year. The only people she would call and talk to were Ella and Collins. After a year, Ella took Collins with her at Shelby's request and their parents' permission, to New York. They had all thought that if anyone could get Shelby to come back to Ohio, it would be Collins, who missed her sister terribly.

It hadn't worked though. Shelby did come home to visit, but she went back to New York after a week. Two more years went by with very few words from Shelby. Those were the years that everything went down with Hiram and Leroy. They had given Russell and Judy two eggs. Judy carried the baby, and Quinn was born. They'd known they would never have another child and they had spoiled Quinn and Frannie, who was nearly three at the time Quinn was born.

They had their perfect family. Shelby made it big on Broadway and started giving vocal lessons to people. She was famous nearly overnight, and everyone was happy.

Shelby started coming home more often then, but it was still more often than not, Ella and Collins going to see Shelby. Over time, the entire family went to see Shelby on the stage at Gershwin Theater, but as Collins got older, she began spending more and more of her vacation time in New York with Shelby. Shelby and Collins were close, but it had never bothered Judy. She had her two children. Collins was only four years older than Frannie. It was the relationship between Ella and Shelby that had always made Judy feel a bit on the jealous side. Ella had known all along that Shelby would make it big, and she had. It had made Shelby and Ella that much closer.

Judy sighed again as she pulled her blankets over her head, something she had always done as a child when she was upset. She honestly felt like her world was falling apart. What if Shelby did try to take Quinn? Part of Judy wanted to get her children and run away, but she knew that that was no life to live. Something inside of her was just…ripping. She should be happy. Quinn wasn't biologically her daughter, but she was biologically related to her. Quinn was her daughter though. Just as much as Frannie was.

It explained why she looked like she fit in the family so well though. She looked almost identical to Judy. No one would ever know that she wasn't Judy's.

Judy didn't truly know what to feel though. Right now both of the girls were giving her the silent treatment because she wouldn't let them leave the house and had canceled Quinn's sleepover with Santana.

Judy sighed. Santana. She had refused to let Russell tell the girls about Shelby. They didn't even know about Rachel yet. How was she supposed to let her children know what was going on? That Quinn's biological mother was her Aunt Shelby, and that she had two other sisters, one her best friend?

Why couldn't Shelby just let well enough alone? Why!? Judy wanted to know. She wanted to ask her, but she couldn't. she refused to talk to her sister. She just couldn't talk to Shelby right now. She didn't know what Shelby was thinking, and didn't want too right now, least her entire world fall apart right in front of her.

The facts remained, though, that she was slightly jealous of Shelby. Right now, she could not forgive her. Not when she was terrified that her sister was going to take her baby away. A baby that she had yearned for after Frannie was out of diapers and the fact that she would never be able to have a child on her own again had sank in.

Judy had often felt that Shelby was everything that she wanted to be.

And now she was one more thing Judy so badly wanted to be.

Shelby was Quinn's biological mother.

**~Found~Found~Found~Found~Found~**

"Hello, Shelby. How have you been?" Hiram Berry asked with a smirk across his face that made Shelby want to leave the room before she smacked him as she so badly wished she could.

**AN: Thoughts? Comments? **


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